Pushing too hard
by KT4ever
Summary: Matt gets sick and Danny deals with it.
1. Chapter 1

My first Studio 60 fan-fiction. Reviews welcome.

Matt sat at his desk starring at the screen. Every writer has this issue, and when you write for a living, you have it more often. Writers block. Yep, it was definitely a illness or syndrome... or at least, Matt thought it should be. Here it was Wednesday night, and they still needed another twenty minutes of sketches. The writing room hadn't produced anything good for him to run with. Everything thus far had been rejected, except for few things.

Matt looked up at the clock. Strike that last thought- it wasn't Wednesday. It was Thursday. Matt stood up and grabbed his tennis ball up. Pacing the room he started to bounce it off the walls. Pacing, he knew, sometimes helped.

_This is freaking ridiculous, _he yelled at himself. _How can I be locked down for two days? Like this?_

It was a question he didn't have an answer too. It was true. The writers' room had given him a few things, and he had run with them on Monday. Tuesday, the room had contributed a few more things, but nothing he liked. However, the other problem was that he couldn't put a sentence together with a dictionary, two hands, and a flashlight. And this illness had now had him in its grasp for forty-eight hours.

"Matt," Danny called out as he walked in through one of the doors. "I need more."

Matt rolled his eyes as his best friend walked through the door to his office. His glasses on his face, suit jacket discarded somewhere- just his wearing his black pants, white shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, and a tie that was undone and hanging loosely.

"I know Danny."

"What do you have?"

"Nothing," Matt snapped. "I have a blank screen."

"The show is in less than two days Matt. We have to have time to prep and do sound, cameras-"

"I know Danny! You don't think I don't know?"

"I know you know Matt. I just came to see how much more you had done?"

"Nothing. I haven't done anything! I can't even find a word to type!"

Danny stopped and looked at his friend. Matt was always stressed, but writer's block really got under his skin. Danny flopped down on the couch next to the window where one could see the stage area.

"So you're stuck?"

"Yeah Danny. What? You think I am just sitting up here doing nothing and earning my salary?"

"No Matt. I think you need to go home and get some sleep. The red bull just isn't going to cut it. You've been here since Monday. Have you gone home?"

"Have you?" Matt countered.

"Yeah. I went home Monday and Tuesday night. The writers were working on stuff."

"So then how do you know I didn't?"

"Cause you still have on the same shirt from Monday."

Matt looked down at himself. Danny was right. He still had on his blue dress shirt, unbuttoned, black shirt underneath it, and jeans that he'd changed into Monday afternoon.

"Shut-up," Matt said.

Danny smiled. It was Matt's way of say that Danny was right. "Go home Matt. You're exhausted, and that doesn't help you write."

"We are out of time Danny. I can't afford to go home."

"Then lay down here," Danny gestured at the couch. "Get a few hours of sleep."

Danny looked out at the stage area. It was quiet. The cast and crew had gone home about a half hour ago. The writer's room was still working, but some of them had gone. Jordan had left around ten. Danny had been on his way out the door when he had seen the lights on in Matt's office.

Matt shrugged his shoulders as he continued to pace around the room. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Matt said as he walked out the door.

Danny watched him walk off down the hall. Then he withdrew the small bottle of liquid Benadryl from his pocket. It had been Simon's idea, when they knew that Matt hadn't slept in twenty-four hours. It was a little something to take the edge off and help to lure him to sleep. Danny walked over to Matt's desk and poured some into the Red Bull drink that was sitting there. Then he went back and sat down in the chair.

Matt was back within minutes. He sat back down at his desk and finished off his drink. He looked at his screen for several quiet minutes. Danny watched his best friend. He was waiting him out. His phone was set to wake him up in an hour. Simon had said it would take about that long for it took work. So, Danny put his head back and waited.

A vibrating in his pocket brought Danny out of a sound sleep. He shut it off and then looked around. Matt had his head down on his desk.

_Damn it,_ Danny thought. He had hoped Matt would at least move to the couch.

Danny got up and walked over to the desk. Gently he put Matt's left around his neck and gripped the back of Matt's jeans and shirt in his right hand.

"Come on Mattie," Danny said pulling his best friend up. Matt, thankfully, came with him without really waking up. Danny deposited him on the couch and then threw a blanket over him. He closed the notebook on the desk and turned the lights out as he walked out the door. He knew Matt would be mad in the morning, but Danny didn't care. Matt needed to sleep.

Danny headed to the writer's room. Andy was still there. "Hey," Danny said.

"Hey," Everyone echoed. Danny could hear the tiredness in their voices and see them dragging with exhaustion.

"Matt's sleeping, so don't bother him till morning," Danny instructed them.

Andy nodded. "That's fine. I was going to send them home anyways," Andy told Danny.

Danny nodded. "Bright and early tomorrow then," Danny told them as he closed the door, heading to his car.

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Danny came into the studio at six. He wanted to head Matt off before he woke up and took off anyone's head. Danny put his stuff down in his office and then headed to Matt's. He was surprised to find his friend still asleep. Suzan was just getting to her desk.

"Don't let anyone wake him," Danny told her. "I'll be back in an hour to do it myself."

She nodded and asked, "He sleep the whole night?"

"Yeah, I think so. He was pretty tired when I came to visit him last night."

"He'd had enough caffeine in him for nine people," she told Danny. "How on Earth did you get him to sleep?"

Danny smiled, "I'm not telling."

Suzan smiled. "Fine as long as you tell him it was all you. He's gonna kill someone when he wakes up and I don't get paid enough to be on that list."

"No he won't," Danny said walking away.

Danny made his morning rounds and then, was able to head back to Matt's office to wake him. Danny shook his friend's shoulder. He was surprised with the amount of heat he felt coming off of Matt's body.

"Mattie," Danny said shaking his friend. "Wake up."

Matt mumbled something that Danny couldn't make out.

"Mattie," Danny called out louder, shaking Matt's should even harder. Cloudy eyes opened to Danny's concerned face. Matt blinked a few times trying to remember where he was and how he'd come to be there.

"Danny?" Matt said slowly.

"Yeah," Danny said. "Here drink this."

Danny handed his friend a bottle of orange juice. Matt took it and sipped at it. Then he went to swing his feet back over the couch to sit up. Matt ran a hand through his hair and looked around his office. He could feel the cold air hitting his back and neck, chilling him as he sat there.

"How'd I get on the couch," Matt asked.

Danny heard the roughness in Matt's voice. His eyes narrowed for a moment in even more concern. Between the warmth he felt when he woke Matt and the voice, he was pretty sure Matt was getting sick.

"I put you there last night," Danny told him as he sat his weight on the table in front of the couch so he could watch Matt.

"I don't remember," Matt said as he went to stand.

Danny smiled at himself. Sometimes you just had to take things into your own hands, he thought. Then he looked up at Matt and concern crowded onto his face to replace the smile that was just there. Matt suddenly had become pale, sweaty, and didn't look well at all.

Then he collapsed.


	2. Chapter 2

Here we go again! Reviews are welcome- please someone tell me if I am in character ok. I think I am, but I'd like to know what others think. This is one series that I wished they had NEVER cancelled!

Matt had been rushed through the ambulance doors over two hours ago, and Danny hadn't heard anything yet. His freshly pressed shirt had wrinkled in the three hours he'd been waiting in the waiting room. His glasses had long been pushed up onto his head as he sat on the edge of a chair, his legs spread slightly apart so that his head can hang without causing his waist ban to be uncomfortable. He rested his elbows on his knees and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. He hated to wait.

Jumping back up to his feet he marched back to the registration desk and asked about Matt again. The older lady looked at him with tired resignation in her eyes. He'd been to her window at least six times and frankly she was getting tired of him.

"Can I help you," she asked already knowing the answer.

"I'd like to know the condition of Matthew Albie." Danny had lost all sense of being nice, fives approaches ago. Now he just wanted the woman to give him the information or let him back to see Matt himself. He had to know how his best friend was doing or he was going to lose his mind.

"Sir, I _**AM**_ sorry. But we cannot give out information to you if you are not family or have a POA. I have explained this to you sir. Now please, step away from the window and when we have someone here to—"

"Here you go," a female voice said. "Now tell him what is going on."

Jordan had slammed down a piece of paper with stated POAH. Danny didn't know what it meant really. Then it dawned on him. Matt's surgery. He and Matt had talked about the surgery and that Matt was going to sign over his Healthcare POA to him. He looked and mouthed, thank you to her.

The woman with the gray hair, blue blazer, and evil face accepted the paper and then disappeared.

"How'd you know," Danny asked.

"I didn't for sure. But I know someone in the offices at Cedars that pulled his medical chart. They found the POA and picked it up and brought it over to you. I knew you would need it after all the crap we went through with Rebecca."

"Thank you, again." He leaned over and kissed his wife.

"Mister Tripp?"

"Yes!" Danny responded, deafening Jordan who had been standing beside him.

"Sir could you come with me please," a woman asked. She was small, like his wife, but with blond hair. She was pretty.

Danny went to move, but stopped when he felt Jordan squeeze his hand. He looked at her.

"Come on," he said.

"Go on. Make sure he wants a lot of people back there first. Then I'll come back."

Danny gave her a quizzical look but then nodded and left after the nurse. He followed her through several hallways and passed many closed curtains that hid people who were sick. His apprehension kept growing with each passing curtain. Something screamed at him that this wasn't right. Why would Matt collapse like that? Why would he not tell Danny he was sick? Did he take something? Did he catch something? Is there something wrong with him, a disease that no one knew about? Too many things passed through Danny's mind. There was a man approaching him and the nurse. She stopped outside a room and Danny nearly tripped over her.

"Are you here for Matthew Albie," the man asked.

"Yes! Now can someone tell me what is going on?" Danny was getting pissed. He had been waiting and waiting, and frankly, he wasn't going to take much more.

"Sir, please don't raise your voice," the man said calmly. "Mister Albie is very sick right now. When he was brought in, he wasn't breathing. We have had to put a tube in his throat and place him on a respiratory. That is what is breathing for him right now. He is very weak. He has what we call, sepsis. Essentially, he was in shock when he arrived. We have managed to stabilize him, but his condition is very grave. We are going to move him to a critical care unit for now."

Danny stood their, mouth hanging open. All feeling had gone out of him. He was numb. Did this man just say that Matt had stopped breathing? That he was in shock? Wasn't that something that happened when you had an allergic reaction? Critical care unit, isn't that bad? Doesn't that mean death is running around just waiting?

Color drained from his face.

"Sir, " the woman said softly, "why don't you sit here for a moment." She indicated a chair that was next to the doors. The glass doors are what they had stopped in front of. This was not a curtained room. Was that bad, Danny thought?

"Do you want to see him Mister Tripp?"

Danny looked up at the man is disbelief. Of course he wanted to see him, but ….

"Will he be okay," Danny asked.

The doctor made a noncommittal gesture. "We can only hope. He is young, but he is weak. This kind of thing takes a lot out of person. He could survive, but sir it is possible he could not."

"What caused this," Danny asked.

"We think he had an infection that went untreated. A bacterial infection that he thought was maybe a common cold. Left untreated, it went to his blood stream. That is how is spread."

Danny nodded. It was really all he could do. His world had just come crashing down around him.

"Can I see him?"

"Certainly. Then we are going to move him," the doctor told Danny.

The door slid open and the curtain was pulled back. Danny stopped just a few steps in. This was not his best friend. Matt was pale, motionless, and laid out on a bed that swallowed him. There were wires that went underneath the gown he wore. They were attached to his arms, legs, and chest. There were three IV lines, two followed clear tubing to his left arm and one followed the clear tubing to his right arm. There was a tube taped to his mouth, and attached to a machine.

Danny thoroughly believed he was now in the mists of a horror film. Something that, maybe, Wes Craven had thought up. No, this was Stephen King quality. The nurse who stood next to him gave him a nudge, so he slowly began to cross to where Matt now lay.

Gently, he picked up Matt's right hand in his own. He felt the nurse leave his side after placing a chair next to him and the bed. Then, once the room was alone, he leant down next to Matt's ear.

"You are not allowed to leave me Matt. You are my best friend, and you mean the world to me. Damn you, you better fight. I love you."

Then Danny sat down to wait.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry this took longer. Law school sucks!—Ok, I still don't own any of the characters… except the nurses and doctors. All mistakes are mine, as my beta is currently not doing well in our class. She has a D and I have an A. So, she had no time to read. I'm not sure how I found time to write. I read it three times, but I don't know if I got all of the mistakes.

Cmstaylor77- Thank you for the review. I hope this goes were you want it too!

Louise Lynch- Thank you. I love reviews and I am very self aware when I post, so the review just gave me a bunch of warm fuzzies!

"The next twenty-hour will be crucial."

That was the answer that Danny had gotten from the doctor. Those seven words had brought more fear to his life than he had ever remembered feeling. Within the hour several people came in at once, and one nurse- older with grey hair- told him to step outside so that they could move Matt to the ICU.

So, like a puppy following sadly behind his owner, Danny followed. He waited as best he could outside the ICU area while the situated his best friend. Somewhere in the back of his mind he blamed himself. He had known that Matt had been sick. He just didn't know that he was this sick.

He looked up when someone called out Matt's name. It was another doctor, this one dressed in a pair of black pants, blue dress shirt, and matching tie. The outfit was topped off with the white, official looking, lab coat.

_Yep, this is a horror flick that Matt wrote. Somehow I've fallen asleep and this was what I was reading. Somewhere there should be someone waiting to jump our and crack the punch line wide open. _

"Mr. Trip," the lab coat said from the head of a monster.

"Y—Yes," Danny responded trying to find his voice.

"We've got him settled. This came on suddenly and I just wanted to talk to you before you went in. I don't know if anyone had explained how sick your friend is."

"Yes they have."

The doctor nodded. "Good. There are still a lot of wires and tubes, but I assure we are going to do everything we can for him."

Danny nodded. "Can I see him?"

"Yes," the man said as he nodded. However, Danny was almost certain that he caught someone akin to a look that someone had when they know something sad that everyone else does not.

The IVs were numerous, Danny thought as he watched his friend. There were wires that snaked their way into the gown that Matt wore. They went to a monitor that was mounted to a wall above his head. The machine on Matt's left was occupied with filling the space between the wall and Matt, so Danny pulled the chair up to the other side. It hissed, constantly, and Danny cringed at the noise. It didn't sound like something that should help someone. It was more like the sound of a snake before it struck you. The tubing from that machine when to his mouth which was covered with that and some kind of a plastic mouthpiece that wrapped around his head and helped secure the tubing.

He fell into the chair on the right and looked upon his friend's face with fear. There was stubble on his chin, but it contrasted sharply to the pale white of his skin.

_He is so white, Danny thought reaching one hand up to brush a single finger against Matt's cheek. White sheets have more color. I'm gonna loose him._

Danny shook his head violently. He knew that he had to be strong. However, the pale skin and beads of sweat of his forehead that had gathered from the fever had made feeling strong near impossible. It took every ounce of strength he had to chase away the fear from his heart and lock it behind a door somewhere in his heart.

"Oh Mattie," he whispered in his friend's ear, "you have to fight. You can't leave me. I am here."

He gently brushed back the hair that had plastered itself to Matt's forehead. He knew that tomorrow he would need to get a razor for his friend. He'd take care of that, not some aid in a green set of scrubs. When a small moan escaped from his friend, Danny winced. Than, he pulled blanket from the fingers that had grabbed it, and snaked his own into Matt's hand.

"Squeeze me hand," Danny encouraged into his friend's ear. "I'm here. Squeeze as hard as you need too my friend."

Danny was slightly heartsick when his friend didn't acknowledge his words. However, he vowed to ensure that he would never leave until his friend did- no matter how he left. He didn't leave. Not for three days. Jordan and the others came and went. The show, Jordan said, had not been great. However, Danny didn't care. His word was falling apart currently and the last thing he wanted to hear about was the show. It was three days until Matt finally sought the world of the living.

"Matt needs you!" Those were the words that Jordan yelled at him that had brought him out of the bathroom reserved for families.

"What!"

"Matt!" Jordan said again, breathless from running up a flight of stairs and down three halls to the showers. "He's waking up. He's fighting the vent! Go!"

So have dressed, sopping wet, Danny ran out of the showers. He took the stairs two at time, sock feet slipping twice. Busting through the doors, he crashed into the wall across from the stairwell and regained his footing. Then he went off down the halls- smacking the button on the wall that allowed him into the ICU.

Alarms blared as Danny entered the room. There were nurses and doctors all attempting to calm Matt down, but Matt refused to be calmed. He was had a dangerously high fever. The evidence clear- flushed cheeks, sweat dripping off him, and the nightmare of hallucinations- whichever you wanted to call them plagued his friend like a lion stalked a wounded zebra.

"Mr. Albie! Matt," the doctor was yelling. "You need to relax! You need to calm down sir. You are in the hospital-" however that sentence was cut off as Matt flung out an arm and pulled out an IV and hit the doctor in the face at the same time. Danny looked at his friend and saw his eyes were open. They were wide, fear had corrupted them into pools are blackness. Matt was trying to breath, cough, do anything- but the tube in his throat refused to release control of the one thing that the human body needed most- AIR.

Someone finally grabbed Matt's arm as it went for the kill. He'd actually managed to get his hand on the tube in his throat. That was when the doctor had had enough.

"Get me a seditive- Haldol. Two milligrams. IV."

The order brought Danny out of his frozen stupor. "No! Wait!" He ordered everyone moving to his friend's side in three quick steps. "You need to relax Matt. The ventilator is just helping you to breathe easier."

Matt's eyes found his friend's and Danny saw the pool of tears that glistened in each one. Danny ran his right hand through Matt's hair, and picked up the one which had been held by the doctor with his left. The heart monitor showed the affect has the rate fell slowly and Matt tried to cough the tube less and less.

"That's it," Danny cooed. "Stop fighting the damn thing. You need it. I know it's horrible Mattie, but you need it tool live. I'm right here, my friend. I'm not going to let anything happen. Shh, now. Relax."

Slowly Matt's movements stilled and he quit trying to fight the room of people. Danny knew he was scarred. However, he watched Matt's eyes slowly start to close. He watched the rhythm of his chest begin to rise and fall with the hisses of the machine, letting Danny know that Matt had relaxed enough to let his friend fall back to sleep.

"You did go," one nurse said. Danny hadn't realized everyone else had left.

"I've got his back," the man said with a small smile. "And he knows that. I will always have his back."

The nurse smiled, leaving him alone in the room. Matt remained silent well into the night. However, Danny stayed awake. Leaving had nearly been catastrophic for his friend and it was a mistake he wasn't about to make again.


End file.
